First scare for Mum!

Not long after my post here on Friday night, Austy started coughing in his sleep. I thought nothing of it until he worked himself into a coughing fit, waking up and screaming in between trying to catch his breath! I was worried but most concerned that he got his much needed rest as he has had a cold and thought the cough was part of that. So I held him upright against my chest, rocked in our bedtime chair and patted his back, singing to him until he fell asleep. I held him for about half an hour just cuddling him and feeling sorry for him as he had worked himself into such as state whilst struggling to catch his breath and his breathing was quite rattley.

No sooner had I put him down and walked out of the room that the whole thing started again. He was more upset this time and so was I. I was trying to calm him down so he could breathe easier but nothing would work. Then Slinky Malinki (rapscallion cat) came to the rescue! For those not in the know Slinky Malinki is Austy's favourite book by Linley Dodd in the Hairy Mclary series. Sure enough the page with Slinki Malinki all tangled in yarn got him giggling again and his breathing slowed to a more normal rate. I was too scared to put him back to bed though and called Nanny Robyn around for a second opinion that he needed to see a doctor straighht away. We decided that it would ease my mind (and also didn't think he would get much sleep in his cot if we didn't) so we called the locum out. He came at 12:30am after a 2 hour wait during which Austy slept on my chest in the darkened loungeroom.

I was unimpressed with the doctor's manner as he seemed to hardly care at all except to tell me I was dressing him too warmly (he had a body suit and cotton PJ's on underneath his grobag as it was acool night and that's what the grobag recommendations say for a 16 degree room, which his was). I think he was a tad warm mainly because I'd been holding him and he had woken and fussed for a bit before the doctor arrived. I already felt awful that my precious boy was sick, and this doctor made me feel even worse. Anyway I realised that I should take what he said with a grain of salt once he diagnosed Austin with croup and told me to give him a dose of prednisolone (a broken down tablet from the bottle I had in the cupboard for my asthma) with a teaspoon of HONEY!!! Once the doctor left, I dutifullly crushed up the tablet portion and mixed it with my milk, and Austy took it just fine... no honey needed here to possibly set off an alergic reaction or give him some disease (you're not meant to give honey to an under 12m old for those reasons).

Anyway, the course of pred is now over and Austy seems to be on the mend thank goodness, ready for our trip to Sydney. We are getting him checked over tomorrow morning by our regular doctor just to make sure and then we are off for our big adventure - travelling with a baby for the first time!

Just to prove he is getting better, here's a photo taken last night when it seemed someone had changed his batteries and installed energiser max instead of the regular eveready ones. He escaped me whilst I was trying to get him dressed for bed after his bath and every effort at catching him and bringing him back for his evening massage failed, so I got the camera out instead!

9 months old today

Here's our big 9 monther! He is loving water more and more now, so I must get Andrew to take the camera to a swimming lesson again soon, since we only have photos of our first one which wasn't his best as he tired too quickly. He jumps in off the side now and as a result qualified for his free fall certificate (we are told but yet to receive it). The bath turns into the new Splashmatic washing machine when Austy is in it, not interested in toys, just churning up the water.

His latest trick that he started doing today, is clicking his tongue as he has been watching me closely when I do it (sort of like a clock ticking). He thinks it's hilarious! Almost as funny as me twisting a dead leaf around in my fingers for him, which got many a giggle the other day. Gosh he's a giggler - and we love it!!

He hasn't been all that well this week, picked up a virus last week which hit him on Monday, but has coped pretty well with it and laughing almost as much as normal, just a lot more tired and a few more temper tantrums than normal. But that big chubby cheeked grin is still there whenever we look at him.

Austy had a big adventure last Sunday to his Mum and Dad's work, super fascinated by the robots in the Body Shop and fell asleep walking through General Assembly... hmm, does that mean only Daddy's work is interesting? He also had a great day last Saturday as I was babysitting his big cousins Jake and Alyssa. We went to the park for a picnic and then Austy was thrown in the sling so I could keep up with Jake (who's just turned 2) running 100 mile an hour through the playground. We haven't done much else this week as both Austy and Andrew haven't been feeling the best, but we are off on our trip to Sydney next weekend. Austy's first plane trip! I'm sure we'll have lots of news for you when we get back.

Austy finds his knees

Really, just wanted an excuse to post this pic, as it's my newest favourite. But yes, Austy has finally found his knees and will occasionally rock on them, but crawling is still faster on his toes, so the knees are just for rocking.

He is a bit of a comedian too. The other day I was laying on the floor with him playing adn I was resting on my elbow, so my t-shirt rode up a little. He spotted it, raced over (toe crawling of course) and latched on to my... belly button! I couldn't help but laugh so he looked at me, cackled, and latched right back on. Sorry buddy, no milk there - belly button lint doesn't count!

Now back to the housework - my turn to host Mum's group this week. Eeeek, the place is a mess!

Austy's Crawling Tips

Step One: Push up on hands and toes (and sometimes knees if you can find them)
















Step Two : Push and flop... woooooopsy, flopped a bit too far!






You can check out Austin's crawling on video if you go to Austy's Album (see the link on the right) and select "Austin in motion" as the album which you would like to view. I have just uploaded the video footage of tonight's crawling, the first time he has started to think about using knees instead of toes. He still needs to work out that it's easier if he uses alternating legs though rather than two arms, two legs at the same time.

Our little explorer

Well it has been a couple of weeks since I last gave you all an Austy update. I'm not sure where the time has gone exactly, but we have just been enjoying our little boy.

The teeth saga is finally over for a little while as the 8 chompers he now has are well out of the gyums and the blisters he got on the inside of his upper lip (as a result of teething) are now healed too. We're managing to get him to eat solids again (other than fruit gel or yoghurt!) so as a result he's back to his happy self and also sleeping better during the day. Yesterday his morning nap went for a record 2.5hrs! I cleaned all the floors, did some washing, sat down and relaxed then actually got to do my hair and put make up on and get ready for my treck into the city in the afternoon. And then he surprised me with another hour nap while I chatted and had coffee with some friends!

He's been well on the move for about 2 weeks and Andrew's parents keep asking us if he's crawling yet. I say he is, because he can get very quickly from one room to another, but they say he's not as he doesn't crawl properly. Hey, who says you have to use your knees to crawl? Austy does a pretty good job using his toes instead and going two arms, two feet rather than alternating between them. If he's not "crawling" until he uses his knees, I wonder if he ever will as he's getting quite good at his own unique version of it, and looks pretty happy with what he's doing. He's into everything! We shut him in the lounge room most of the time now as it's pretty baby proof. I tried to sit out on the back lawn with him today and have a picnic lunch with him, but the baby chair came out so I could strap him in and keep him still. He got to explore the grass (and eat the leaves and chase the cat) after he demolished his first sandwich of swiss cheese with a tiny scraping of vegemite and butter.

Our boy is also 8 months old now (and a whopping 11kgs), and such a social little being. He loves to smile and laugh with people and will go to anyone. He especailly loves watching children, which generally tires him out enough for a good kip! He has developed such an affectionate nature too, and while I get the most cuddles and kisses (he loves to squeeze my neck tightly as he plants a big wet dribbly one on my lips... or bites my nose!), he will willingly share them around when you ask him to ("Kisses for Aunty Katy?") except sometimes when it comes to Dad he thinks it's a great game to pretend he's going to kiss him then snap his head away at the last minute.

He has become a tummy sleeper in the last week too, which might be why we have seen extended sleeps now. He rolls straight over and tucks his arms under him and then nods off into a deep slumber. We know that when he's on his tum, he will generally sleep longer than when he falls asleep on his back.